LAX89LA271 · Beech C23
Woodland Aviation Beech C23 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL) to 041 · Woodland, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX89LA271
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech C23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N60482
- Operator
- Woodland Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Tahoe Airport (TVL), S LAKE TAHOE, CATo 041 · Woodland, CA
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Weather condition › Downdraft
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of South Lake Tahoe, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT AND WAS COGNIZANT THAT A HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITION EXISTED. DURING THE TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE RESPONDED IN CONCERT WITH THE PILOT'S EXPECTATIONS, AND THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN CLIMBING. AFTER PASSING OVER THE MIDFIELD LOCATION A DOWNDRAFT WAS ENCOUNTERED AND THE AIRCRAFT'S AIRSPEED DECREASED FROM 80 TO 65 KNOTS. THE RUNWAY WAS 8544 FEET LONG, AND THE PILOT, BELIEVING THE AIRCRAFT WOULD LIKELY NOT OUTCLIMB THE HIGH TERRAIN SOUTH OF THE FIELD, DECIDED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF. THE PILOT IMMEDIATELY APPLIED FULL FLAPS, LOWERED THE NOSE AND ATTEMPTED TO LAND ON THE REMAINING RUNWAY. THE AIRCRAFT OVERRAN THE END OF THE RUNWAY BY 100 YARDS AND COLLIDED WITH A BERM.
Probable cause
THE AIRCRAFT'S ENCOUNTER WITH A DOWNDRAFT DURING TAKEOFF. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE RELATED TO THE HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE CONDITION WHICH EXISTED AND THE AIRCRAFT'S DETERIORATED TAKEOFF PERFORMANCE CAPABILITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX89LA271
- Event ID
- 20001213X29156
- Case number
- LAX89LA271
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 264df91ff50dd95f33aec07f8befd282c75d34cbec7b8a7f921e73b647e785fe; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:16:31.272Z.